Magic with a Metal Ring: The Alamo

A highlight meal from the Syracuse trip was this creation I made for Jessica and her friend and me. Jessica named it the Alamo due to the Southwestern flavors. I wanted to create something fancy and impressive-looking, and equally impressive-tasting! We all agreed this met our expectations! (And exceeded them in Jessica's case, who admitted she wasn't too pumped for an all-vegan meal).

This creation would have tasted just as good without the presentation, but we eat with our eyes first, right? I had no idea it would be so easy to use this metal ring to make the meal look so fancy. I just put the ring on the plate, piled in the mashed sweet potatoes first, and layered the rest of the components on top, removed the ring, and voila!

The actual components to the meal were simple, so I"ll just list them here.

• 2 mashed sweet potatoes with Southwest seasoning
• 1 can black beans, 1 can corn, mixed, with S.W. seasoning
• Roasted tomatoes and portobello mushrooms
• sliced avocado
• sauteed spinach with garlic and lemon
• a dab of mashed sweet potato on the top with blue corn chips on top to garnish
• the decorative sauce on the plate was a pre-made Mexican flavor blend I got in a tube

This whole meal took about 15-20 minutes to put together! 

Voyaging in Syracuse

I spent the last week or so in Syracuse, NY for Jessica's graduation! It was the perfect vacation, filled with friends, wine tasting, and plenty of delicious food! The following pictures chronicle a small portion of my vegtastic tasting journey. There were also some fantastic Italian restaurants where I enjoyed some freshly-made whole wheat pasta primavera and plenty of vino! I also made dinner with Jessica and her friend two nights, and those meals came out splendidly as well! I was so glad they enjoyed the vegan meals and we had a lot of fun in the process!

We started out at Strong Hearts, one of my faves. Jess had the "egg-trick sandwich," which is their vegan breakfast sandwich ("egg" and "sausage") on an English muffin. We both had the curry pumpkin soup with asparagus as well. (MMMMMmmmmmm!)

 I enjoyed this roasted veggie panini with chipotle potato salad!

For one meal, I ate at Mimi's Cafe, where I ate this delicious hummus/veggie sandwich on a brioche bun and a cup of veggie chili.

 

    

On campus, there is an eatery that specializes in juices, smoothies, and healthy fare, so I stopped in for some lunch. I had the "70's Veggie Wrap," which had plenty of fresh veggies, sprouts, and avocado. It came with their homemade chips and salsa. I also had their strawberry-orange-banana smoothie with flax seed. So yum!                      

This trip was truly a vegtastic voyage! Bails, I can't wait to see you and make some delicious and unforgettable memories!!!

Bella Burger Heaven

Sometimes I get tired of veggie burgers, or just don't have time to make a healthy one from scratch, so I love the marinated portabella mushrooms as an alternative! I just marinate them in balsamic vinegar and Italian seasoning and then bake them for a few minutes. Sooooo yum!

Missed birthdays & Tofu in Brownies

Dani, you look absolutely beautiful in all of your birthday pictures. I miss you so! I am so so impressed (but not surprised) by your family and David's birthday gifts to you. What a lucky girl! I wish we could have celebrated our birthdays together this year! We'll just have to make up for it by getting extremely drunk and talking about how in love we are when I come home to visit.

As far as food goes, I did some vegan baking earlier this week. When I'm anxious, I bake. I was very anxious earlier this week due to being completely alone for two days straight. It's Spring Break right now and all (3) of my friends and my roommate were gone and I was stuck here for work. So, I baked. I made oatmeal raisin banana-sweetened cookies adapted from one of good ole Susan V's recipes and then made vegan brownies with tofu! I had had a block of tofu sitting in my fridge about to expire so I decided to try baking with it. It turned out great! I forgot where I found the recipe, but they turned out super dense, moist and yummy. The only bad thing is that I was limited on ingredients and had to use a bit of white sugar (ew).

Anyways, I love you very much and really enjoyed your subliminal message today. It obviously worked.

Soooo much love from me to you :)

My Vegtastic 21st Birthday!

I spent my actual birthday in Syracuse with my sister. She took me for sushi and it was delicious! I gained a new appreciation for the Florida winter as I got bundled up to go out into the snow. (I am impressed with your adaptability, Bails!) Jessica threw me a little party and we went to a karaoke bar. She also took me to a vegan restaurant that was amazing!!! It was called Strong Hearts Cafe. From there I got a vegan chocolate-coconut cupcake and ate it with vegan ice cream. Back in Jacksonville, I celebrated with my grandparents and my mom and David at Maggiano's. My mom surprised me with a beautiful vegan carrot cake from Whole Foods! Everyone loved it! And check out the message she had them write on it! Haha! It was like you were there!
The next day David took me to Orlando! We ate and drank around the world at Epcot. We had dinner in China and I was impressed with my tofu-veggie stir-fry! Who knew Disney could be healthy? It was the funnest. It turned out to be the best 21st birthday I could have imagined!